1. Prior Art
The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
U.S. PatentsPatent NumberKind CodeIssue DatePatentee7,326,152B22008 Feb. 5Gates3,730,587A1973 May 1Bloxham5,211,607A1993 May 18Fermaglish3,049,350A1962 Aug. 14Walker4,844,452A1989 Jul. 4Tomosky4,569,532A1986 Feb. 11Mirkarimi
2. Background of the Invention
At birth, an infant's body and brain is not fully developed. The corpus callosum is a neurological passageway communicating information between the left and right brain hemispheres. This allows the body to use both eyes, both ears, both hands and both feet in conjunction, as well as storing and retrieving information. Myelin, a fatty substance in the brain helps neurons send and return information to the brain, brain stem and spinal cord. Neuroscience research has shown that the parts of the brain that control movement also control cognition and emotion. Early infant physical development can improve this cerebral connection and its transmission of information. Gross motor skills including but not limiting: memory, muscle tone, strength, and hand/eye coordination can be improved through a repetitive, cross lateral movement, such as crawling at an early age. Therefore, if an infant/user spends much of its early age crawling or learning to crawl, it is equally improving its brain function/development rate.
A variety of infant walkers have been proposed—for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,326,152 (2008) to Gates, and 3,730,587 (1973) to Bloxham, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,607 (1993) to Fermaglish. Although these walkers allow the infant/user to move on their feet in revolutions around a central-positioned structural column, they are not, however designed to harness an infant/user from the torso, allowing the infant/user to “crawl” on both knees and both hands, bypassing an earlier stage of the infants' age which can be integral to early childhood development.
Many infant walkers (not including U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,587) may restrict the vision of the infants lower limbs do to a device obstruction such as a tray or even the supporting means itself, resulting in a lesser development of hand/eye coordination. In addition to visual obstructions, such infant walkers with height settings are not elasticized, permitting the infant to bounce and build up the much needed physical strength to later walk independently. Because of these aforementioned restrictions, the infant may become “comfortable” sitting in the walker seat until it is not even attempting to walk preventing the intended developmental purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,532 (1986) to Mirkarimi enables an infant that already has proper strength to crawl, to roam freely near unobstructed locations such as a stairway, causing a dangerous environment for the infant. If an infant has not yet built sufficient strength to crawl, the infant will have the task of carrying the weight of the device thereof; resulting in additional strength needed to utilize the device, but nevertheless all the crawling and walking aids suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) By not allowing infant/user to suspend in a “crawling” position with a padded harness around infants torso, walkers prevent the infant from moving on both hands and both knees in a locomotive, cross-lateral manner. This prevents walkers from improving trunk muscles and coordination of all four limbs.
(b) Walkers with stationary seating, that is, walkers that do not allow the infant to bounce up and down can promote the infant to just sit in the seat making movement of their legs less desirable.
(c) Prior walkers that do allow the infant to suspend in walking position have many more required parts to complete the intended function of device due to weight balance needed to support the infant, resulting in a higher cost of materials and manufacturing.
(d) Prior walkers are not designed to be as freely adjustable as the present embodiment. This lack of adjustment restricts the infant to a specific height making the device less accommodating to the variable heights, lengths, and weight of each respective infant/user.
(e) Walkers that restrict the vision of the infant/user's legs can prevent the him/her from recognizing that it can control it's legs to move about freely.
(f) Prior walkers with central-positioned structures that are not detachable from center column to base, making it less portable.
(g) Prior walkers with central-positioned structures do not have a guide wheel that rolls on a plate on top of center column requiring additional means of function to support weight of infant.